The leaves were still green and not falling at the Madonna del Ghisallo when Il Lombardia raced by on Saturday. Autumn has still to arrive in northern Italy and the men's professional cycling season goes on for at least another week in China, the Veneto, France, Japan and even Andorra.
Yet Il Lombardia always marks the symbolic end to a long season. The enthusiasm of the early-season races is replaced by the autumnal mordoré as the afternoon light gradually fades faster than the energy left in the riders' legs.
Tadej Pogačar won Il Lombardia for a record fifth consecutive time, but there were signs we have reached 'Peak Pogačar'. He is now 27, near his physical best but is perhaps already mentally tired, financially secure for life and satisfied with his palmares.
New riders like Paul Seixas, Alberto Philipsen, Isaac del Toro are already snapping at his heels and showing their future greatness. We're in a new era of professional cycling and Quinn Simmons again showed how fortune can favour the brave and even threaten Pogačar's greatness.
Have we reached Peak Pogačar?
Tadej Pogačar's fifth Il Lombardia victory created a new record and more statistical comparisons than even ChatGPT could generate.
The Slovenian became the first rider to finish on the podium of all five monuments in the same season. In 2025, he also won a fourth Tour de France, the UAE Tour and the Critérium du Dauphiné, Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Pogačar won a second consecutive world title in Rwanda and has now won 10 monuments and 108 races.
After winning Il Lombardia, he confirmed that 2025 is his best ever season, but have we reached peak Pogačar in 2025? In 2026, he can win a record fifth Tour de France and has already said he will again try to win Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to virtually complete his palmares.
But will Pogačar ever win 20 races in a season ever again? Will he win the Tour by such a huge margin? Probably not.
If 2025 is peak Pogačar, then 2026 will mark the start of his gradual decline and a new chapter of the sport.
Savouring greatness and the monotony of the extraordinary
Tadej Pogačar's dominance has a flip side to it, with some struggling to digest his dominance and others suggesting he is making races boring to watch with his long-range attacks.
The fans along the roadside of Il Lombardia appeared to think differently as they cheered him to victory, with the tifosi packed on the final Cole Aperto climb near Bergamo so excited that they almost knocked him off his bike.
While close, attacking racing arguably creates the most entertaining racing, it is important to appreciate greatness.
La Gazzetta dello Sport cited Merckx in an editorial about Pogačar's dominance, recalling that the Cannibal believed that the best rider always has to try to win when they raced. There is little room for gifts in professional cycling, it is too hard a sport to let someone else win after 240km and six hours in the saddle.
Respected Italian journalist Christian Gatti described Pogačar's dominance as the 'monotonia dello straordinario' - 'the monotony of the extraordinary'.
"Dawn and sunset are monotonous, they're always the same, with only slight differences each time, yet each one is unique and spectacular," Gatti wrote on Tuttobiciweb after seeing Pogačar win again.
"Those 'bored' by Pogačar only need to wait a few years, Panta rei, everything passes and even Pogačar's decline will come one day. Sooner or later he'll try to attack but will fail to drop everyone. He knows that more than anyone. That's why he never gives up on a chance to win. It's one of life's rules, when Pogačar cracks and suffers, nobody will wait for him."
The innocence of youth, the talent of Paul Seixas
It may be October but there are signs of a new spring in professional cycling, with the experts hoping for a special vintage in 2026 and beyond, someone able to dethrone Pogačar and perhaps a future French tour de France winner.
Paul Seixas has long been seen as a future super talent, he turned professional with Decathlon AG2R directly from the junior ranks in 2025. However, the wider French public suddenly realised just how good he is after he fought to finish third behind Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel at the European Championships.
He confirmed that performance with seventh at Il Lombardia, making him the youngest rider for over a century to finish in the top ten of a Monument since Luigi Cuppi finished fourth in Milan-San Remo aged just 18.
Cyclingnews saw how Seixas seemed surprised by a scrum of television cameras and journalists beyond the finish line in Bergamo. He just wanted to drink something sweet and fizzy and disappear on his team bus to ease his pain and end his season. Yet it was another milestone in his career.
"I've passed a physical milestone but also a mental milestone, where I can now tell myself that I have a place amongst the best riders," he said humbly.
Seixas' season ultimately did not end with Il Lombardia. He was forced to travel to Paris for a round of television interviews and forced to admit that yes, one day, he dreams of winning the Tour de France.
Remco Evenepoel's quiet Soudal-QuickStep goodbye
There were goodbyes and carefully crafted words of thanks but Remco Evenepoel's farewell to Soudal-QuickStep was a quiet affair, reflecting it is more of a divorce than an amicable uncoupling.
The Belgian was under contract for another year and the team had pivoted to stage racing to back his Grand Tour ambitions. However, Evenepoel is perhaps the most demanding rider in the peloton – demanding of himself and so of his team. He wants to win the Tour de France and realised that Soudal-QuickStep lacked the culture and the funding to satisfy his ambitions.
For two years Evenpoel eventually confirmed he would respect his contract and so stay at Soudal-QuickStep. This year he could not resist Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's courting and so struck a deal to end his contract a year early and wear Red Bull's distinctive colours in 2026.
"The last seven years are something I will take with me for the rest of my life, but I think now it's time to start something new," he told the media in the mixed zone.
Evenepoel is still under contract with the team until the end of the year due to UCI contract rules, but he will soon discreetly meet with his new team to discuss race plans, training and meet with his new teammates to build a new team spirit. 2026 marks a new chapter in his life and career.
All change at RCS Sport as Mauro Vegni retires in 2026
Il Lombardia marked the end of an era in Italian race organisation, with Mauro Vegni admitting that Il Lombardia was his last race as race director.
Cyclingnews saw Vegni in the Il Lombardia podium area in Bergamo and he was strangely relaxed and casually dressed rather than barking orders and trying to make sure everything ran smoothly. There was no suit and tie and no moment on the podium with Pogačar. It was his final moment as a race organiser.
Vegni has designed the 2026 Giro d'Italia route that will start in Bulgaria and be presented in late November but he is due to officially retire in February, before the 2026 RCS Sport races begin.
Now 66 years old, Vegni has worked in a race organisation for almost 50 years. He began as an apprentice with Tirreno-Adriatico founder Franco Mealli in Rome, helped organise the 1994 World Championships in Sicily and then moved to Milan to work for RCS Sport.
He fought with pride to defend Italian cycling and with determination to organise his races despite a myriad of problems. A new team of race management are expected at RCS Sport to replace Vegni, with former sprinter and current technical director Stefano Allocchio becoming the public face of the Corsa Rosa.
"Times have changed, my role will be divided across different people. Now money is everything." Vegni told Bicisport with a veil of sadness as he walked into the sunset of his career.
The 2026 season starts today
The 2025 season is close to ending but the 2026 season is also underway, with riders from Jayco AlUla undergoing testing and check-ups before they head off on holiday.
Some riders were already posting photographs of their holidays but others are in a 2025-2026 hybrid state. They're desperately chasing UCI ranking points as Cofidis and Uno-X fight for WorldTour places, Tudor, Q36.5, and others fight for 2026 WorldTour invitations and Grand Tour wild cards.
Cian Uijtdebroeks finished tenth at Il Lombardia and hoped his season was done but he was given a special bonus: selection for this week's Tour of Guangxi in China. He will leave Visma-Lease a Bike for Movistar in 2026 and so the Dutch team decided to use him to the very end of 2025 by sending him to China as their GC team leader.
"I was given a trip to China as a farewell gift. I'll start at the Tour of Guangxi on Tuesday," Uijtdebroeks joked in Bergamo with a smile.
"With two days of travel and jet lag, my preparation isn't ideal but the stage that decides the general classification isn't until day five, so I still have time to recover."
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